Saw this on the Guardian site. You may already have seen it but it is so breathtaking in its dishonesty that it is worth a browse if not

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A website founded by US religious activists aims to counter what they claim is "liberal bias" on Wikipedia, the open encyclopedia which has become one of the most popular sites on the web. The founders of Conservapedia.com say their site offers a "much-needed alternative" to Wikipedia, which they say is "increasingly anti-Christian and anti-American".

Compare and contrast

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DinosaursWikipedia, "Vertebrate animals that dominated terrestrial ecosystems for over 160m years, first appearing approximately 230m years ago."

Conservapedia"They are mentioned in numerous places throughout the Good Book. For example, the behemoth in Job and the leviathan in Isaiah are almost certainly references to dinosaurs."

US Democratic party

Wikipedia"The party advocates civil liberties, social freedoms, equal rights, equal opportunity, fiscal responsibility, and a free enterprise system tempered by government intervention."

Conservapedia "The Democrat voting record reveals a true agenda of cowering to terrorism, treasonous anti-Americanism, and contempt for America's founding principles."

Intelligent Design is the theory that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause (God), rather than natural processes, such as evolution. [1]

To date there have been over 40 peer reviewed articles supporting Intelligent Design in such notable publications as the Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington and internationally respected scientific journals such as Rivista di Biologia. [2]

In Christian discourse, the name Jesus almost always refers specifically to Jesus of Nazareth, believed by Christian followers to be God's dad, who came to earth as a human c 2 AD. However, God has recently revealed on His blog that Jesus is actually His nephew, not His son.

The secularist view of the Cactaceae is that they are roughly two million years old, and that they have evolved exclusively in the new world. This view fails to explain, however, how it is that the Opuntia genus is native to the island of Opus, near Greece. Cacti are known for their high content of alkaloids, and have often been used in the sacramental rights of the Native Americans. Because of this, the early Catholic missionaries in the west thought the plants to be the work of Satan, and this is perhaps a preferable view to that of materialistic evolution since it is difficult to imagine how something like mescaline could have evolved by natural selection. Besides that, the psychoactive content of many cacti have inspired the writings of such ungodly men as Aldous Huxley and Albert Hoffman.

Several species of cactus are now endangered in the west due to "poaching" by collectors and invasive species. But, since Genesis suggests that man has been given dominion over all of the earth, the environmentalist concerns on this note are entirely inappropriate. It may also be that environmentalists, in addition to flauting the Word of God, are merely concerned about the effects that declining cactus populations will have on their supply of mescaline.

They didn't have the full text that stated the theory of intelligent design would hold that the Native American belief that their ancestors inhabited cacti and caused them to grow was a better explanation than Darwinism. I wish I could find the full text.

The reception to his work was initially positive within the Catholic Church (contrary to popular belief, Galileo was not persecuted for supporting the Copernican theory, but because he was disrespectful to the Pope). However, the reaction was negative among Protestants who felt it conflicted with some literal interpretations of the Bible, such as the account of how Joshua benefited from the sun standing still as it passed over the earth. "And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day." Joshua 10:13. But there were few Protestants in Poland then (or now), and Copernicus died without much controversy. To this day, most Protestant countries reject the Copernican theory.

Renee Descartes was a French philosopher, probably the greatest philosopher of all time (although Kant, Aristotle and Ayn Rand also lay claim to this title).

Descartes locked himself in a stove and meditated, arriving at the unsurprising conclusion that nothing existed. He then used Anselm's proof of the existence of God to decide that perhaps he wasn't deluded, and perhaps things did exist after all. He thought the soul lived in the pineal gland, and when you lift your arm it's just an accident because your brain doesn't control your body, God does. This "god-robot" theory of consciousness got him into ferocious arguments with Hobbes, but then Hobbes loved a good argument and was usually wrong.

Kant's own suggestion for a moral daily life was the categorical imperative: Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law. Expressed another way, an act is moral only if it works as a rule for everyone. For example, littering would be wrong because if everyone did it, then there would be an ugly mess. On the other hand, if a murderer asks you where someone is hiding, you should always tell them because lying is wrong.

A scientist during the Age of Exploration who lived from 1561 to 1626 and promoted research based on experimentation. Bacon was, notoriously, a confirmed bachelor throughout his life. He was however, one of the strange bachelors. One who got married. As can be seen from the illustration, Bacon (like most men of his time) had a beard. Despite this, he was known to also wear a hat.

A scientist during the Age of Exploration who lived from 1561 to 1626 and promoted research based on experimentation. Bacon was, notoriously, a confirmed bachelor throughout his life. He was however, one of the strange bachelors. One who got married. As can be seen from the illustration, Bacon (like most men of his time) had a beard. Despite this, he was known to also wear a hat.

This is the weirdest thing I've ever seen. bachelor? beard? hat? relevancy to the topic? what the he11?

A scientist during the Age of Exploration who lived from 1561 to 1626 and promoted research based on experimentation. Bacon was, notoriously, a confirmed bachelor throughout his life. He was however, one of the strange bachelors. One who got married. As can be seen from the illustration, Bacon (like most men of his time) had a beard. Despite this, he was known to also wear a hat.

This is the weirdest thing I've ever seen. bachelor? beard? hat? relevancy to the topic? what the he11?

I think this confirms the theory that it's mostly homeschooled 13-year-olds who write their entries.

--------------"Rich is just mad because he thought all titties had fur on them until last week when a shorn transvestite ruined his childhood dreams by jumping out of a spider man cake and man boobing him in the face lips." - Erasmus

This is the first entry I checked out to see what Conservapedia was like, and to see if it's really the quality source it claims to be. Sadly, it is not. What a terrible, unscientific, irrational, and ideological understanding of the Theory of Evolution. Conservatives should be ashamed to have this be a representation of Conservative understanding of scientific issues. Thoughtful conservatives who want the straight science of evolution need to look elsewhere. I won't be back.

The conservative view of scientific issues? Even though this entry correctly summarizes the, uh, quality of the evolution article, it's nonetheless a bit saddening. The fact that there is an expectation that our best method of understanding our world is subject to view through the lens of political ideology is unsurprising, but still saddening.

Most notable for being the only journal in the world that will print Davison's articles anymore...

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The conservative view of scientific issues? Even though this entry correctly summarizes the, uh, quality of the evolution article, it's nonetheless a bit saddening. The fact that there is an expectation that our best method of understanding our world is subject to view through the lens of political ideology is unsurprising, but still saddening.

Not surprising indeed. It reminds me of how the USSR had 'Marxist science' and Nazi Germany had 'National Socialist science'. Now we essentially have 'Republican Biology', 'Republican Climatology', 'Republican Geology', etc. They're getting more and more willing to reject all mainstream science to do this. All part of this 21st century American notion that ALL reality is political, and that 'truth' belongs to whoever argues the most belligerently.

One could also write a whole book on this modern day compulsion of American conservatives to carve out their own whole parallel little wingnut-friendly world for themselves, when they can't shape the real world to their own specifications. (The extreme of this are those nutters who want to form their own little fundy republic in South Carolina.) Can't help but wonder how far that trend will go.

--------------"Rich is just mad because he thought all titties had fur on them until last week when a shorn transvestite ruined his childhood dreams by jumping out of a spider man cake and man boobing him in the face lips." - Erasmus

"Editing Wikipedia is no longer a viable approach," says a Conservapedia contributor in England's Guardian.

from the grauniad:

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"I've tried editing Wikipedia, and found that the biased editors who dominate it censor or change facts to suit their views," Andy Schlafly, the founder of Conservapedia, told the Guardian. "In one case my factual edits were removed within 60 seconds - so editing Wikipedia is no longer a viable approach."

That wired news is almost entirely about how everyone is taking the piss. However at the end

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Conservapedia has fallen victim to countless attacks. One entry in particular has gotten a great deal of attention: the page about a tree-dwelling mollusk called the Pacific Northwest arboreal octopus.

Schlafly is amused by the page and its references to the endangered species falling victim to the ravages of logging and suburban encroachment. He sees it as a parody of environmentalists, and he plans to leave it up.

"Conservatives have a sense of humor, too," he says.

The entry on the arboreal octopus reads:

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At the request of its original author, this entry no longer exists here. You are welcome to visit other entries on Conservapedia.

Re "The conservative view of scientific issues? Even though this entry correctly summarizes the, uh, quality of the evolution article, it's nonetheless a bit saddening. The fact that there is an expectation that our best method of understanding our world is subject to view through the lens of political ideology is unsurprising, but still saddening."

Well, there's a guy on another BB who labels everything he dislikes as "liberal", and everything he likes as "conservative", regardless of whether doing so makes any sense or not.

Bonobos, or "pigmy chimpanzees", are an endangered[1] ape species in the genus Pan (the only other being the common chimp). Bonobos are more peaceful and social than the common chimpanzee. Bonobos share about 98% of their DNA with humans and slightly more than the common chimpanzee shares with humans.[2] Unlike many other apes, they walk upright a signficant fraction of the time.[edit]Anatomy and Behavior

Females are smaller than males but unlike in many other ape species the female hierarchy of dominance matters more than that of the males. Bonobos pass the mirror test and have facial expressions close enough to those of humans such that humans can often recognize what emotion a bonobo is expressing. [2] Individual bonobos also have very different facial features such that humans can easily differentiate one bonobo from another.

Proponents of evolutionary psychology often point to bonobos as examples of an evolutionary adaptation in which a species acquired the strategy of bartering sex to enhance social status or to resolve disputes[3]. Homosexual activists haved cite bonobos as examples of animals who perform homosexual acts[4][5] . The National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), a group which believes that homosexuality is a mental disorder that can be cured argues the bonobo behavior is is not sexual but rather are aggressive acts to assert dominance much like when a dog mounts a person's leg[6].

Schlafly is amused by the page and its references to the endangered species falling victim to the ravages of logging and suburban encroachment. He sees it as a parody of environmentalists, and he plans to leave it up.

"Conservatives have a sense of humor, too," he says.

Yeah, like when Ann Coulter joked about putting rat poison in Judge Souter's creme brulee. That was a regular laff riot.

I kept expecting Dembski to report her to the Department of Homeland Security, but oddly it never happened.

--------------"Rich is just mad because he thought all titties had fur on them until last week when a shorn transvestite ruined his childhood dreams by jumping out of a spider man cake and man boobing him in the face lips." - Erasmus